Category: Distracted Driving

According to local news site NJ.com, a four New Jersey residents were injured in an accident involving aggressive driving. Police reports indicate that two vehicles were traveling on Route 31 when one of the drivers attempted to move into the fast lane from the right lane and struck the second car. Both cars then struck a concrete divider, causing one of the vehicles to overturn. Officers believe that both motorists were driving aggressively at the time of the crash. As with any type of accident, this collision could easily have occurred in Illinois.

According to a survey conducted by the American Automobile Association, dog owners indicated that they frequently travel with their pet unrestrained in the vehicle. Fifty-six percent of the respondents drove with their pets in the vehicles at least once each month during the year. Many admitted that having the dog in the vehicle created a distracted driving situation. This is the main reason that state Representative Dan Burke in Chicago co-sponsored a bill that would make driving with a pet on the driver’s lap illegal, although it did not gain much support.

In motor vehicle crashes, many people place blame on a vehicle malfunction, a defect in the road or road construction. These factors do play a role in car accidents, but in the majority of cases, the primary causes are speeding or driving aggressively. According to the Illinois Department of Transportation’s Division of Traffic Safety, there were 274,291 crashes in 2012. Twenty-two percent of these were injury crashes, and there were 956 fatalities.

Driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs can have disastrous consequences. Those consequences only increase in scope and likelihood when the vehicle being driven is a large commercial vehicle. Although federal laws and regulations prohibit the practice, many commercial driver’s license holders continue to drive while inebriated or under the influence of drugs.